April has brought a spring drought, disease tests for cattle and a community tree-planting project to Eves Hill Farm near Reepham - the subject of our monthly "year in the life of a Norfolk farm" features.
Of all the countless variables affecting the success of Norfolk's food growers, there is one which has always been beyond any farmer's control - the weather.
And after weeks without significant rainfall, the cracks are beginning to show in the parched arable fields at Eves Hill Farm near Reepham.
Farmer Jeremy Buxton is starting to worry the spring drought could damage the yield and quality of his crops - particularly the barley which needs to meet premium standards to be malted for the brewing and distilling industries.
"We are just keeping our fingers crossed and praying for rain, because that is all we can do," he said.
"Fortunately our beans and wheat are OK at the moment, but the spring barley is a stressed crop due to lack of moisture.
"It is for malting, so the quality of the crop is important. Spring barley in a good year is about £25,000 profit for us, so it is a big chunk of money. A failed crop is not going to produce that.
"We are doing things on this farm which make us a little bit better equipped - our soil health is pretty good. For some crops, like vegetables, other farmers will be feeling the pinch more, and some people are already irrigating their wheat."
Mr Buxton said, at the moment, he is less concerned about the grass growing in the pastures to feed his grazing cattle.
"Because we had a lot of rain over the winter, the grass roots go down a lot deeper, so they are OK for the time being," he said. "They can access the moisture that was there over the winter and they have benefited from a lot of hot sunshine to grow on nicely.
"But once we graze away what is there, if this drought continues, will we get the regrowth that we need to graze a second, third, fourth time?"
There is a flip-side to the weather though, with the sunshine swelling bookings for the farm's campsite and glamping units - part of a diversification strategy which also includes a farm shop and cafe due to open in July.
"A diverse business mitigates a lot of these problems other people are having," said Mr Buxton.
Community tree-planting
This month has also seen the launch of the farm's first "agroforestry" project.
About 1,200 willow trees have been planted in strips within grazing pastures to create shelter, environmental benefits and woodchip co-products - all alongside the traditional food production operations.
"There are so many different reasons to do this," he said. "The trees will provide shade, shelter and browse, so additional nutrition for the livestock, and also carbon capture to help climate change, and of course biodiversity.
"We have put in four different varieties of hybrid willows. When they are big enough we will harvest them to create woodchip to create compost to then feed the soil.
"So it is this lovely cycle of growing, harvesting and creating our own crop nutrition, which is particularly relevant now with bagged fertiliser being so expensive."
The trees were planted with the help of a team of volunteers from surrounding towns and villages - part of Mr Buxton's efforts to encourage public engagement with farming.
"We put a shout out to the local community for people in Reepham and Booton, people who know the farm and share the same interests as us," he said.
"We had probably 20-30 people here and it was literally from three-year-old kids up to this incredible lady who lives in Cawston, who is 74, who cycled across three days in a row.
"Eves Hill Farm is a community farm. We want people to know what we are doing because we believe in what we are doing. We want to get people involved, get them on farm and get them learning about food."
Food education
The educational theme continued when Mr Buxton took a pedigree Hereford cow and her calf to visit students at City Academy Norwich.
The visit was organised via The Papillon Project, an educational charity which helps young people grow their own food to promote sustainable living and environmental awareness.
"You could see the impact it had on the kids," said Mr Buxton. "They were blown away, and there was so much interaction on social media about it.
"It was so satisfying to be able to answer their questions, like: 'How old are they, how much do they weigh, what will you do with them, what are their names?'
"There were those simple questions, all the way through to tricky questions like: 'How old will they be when you kill them?'
"There was a mixture of reactions, but I said: 'You probably go to McDonald's or you have a Sunday roast, so where do you imagine that comes from?' It is starting that thought process of connecting them with farming and food production.
"For me, these are the grass roots consumers so it is about planting a seed to get them asking about where their food comes from."
Good news for animals
There was some welcome good news among the farm's livestock this month.
After a heartbreaking start to calving in March, including the loss of seven animals, the latter part of the season has brought much better fortunes for the beef cattle, with a total of 25 new arrivals, and five more to come.
There have also been some new piglets born, bringing the numbers in the farm's new herd of Saddleback pigs up to 20.
And free-range hens that have been cooped up for five months can finally look forward to getting outdoors again, following last week's news that a national poultry lockdown enforced to stop the spread of bird flu will end on May 2.
Mr Buxton said it was a "massive relief" for the birds to be allowed into their natural environment again, after such a long period in the barn which has affected their health and the number of eggs being laid.
And there was more relief after his Hereford cattle were given the all-clear by vets after testing them for bovine tuberculosis (TB).
The animals only need to be tested every four years for this devastating disease, due to Norfolk's low-risk status.
But the vet's visit is always a cause for anxiety, said Mr Buxton.
"From a practical point of view, it is stressful in getting 100 head of cattle through the corral, so the breeding animals can be tested," he said
"But then there is the implication that is always in the back of your mind: What if you get a positive reactor and you have TB in your herd? Because that is disastrous.
"That would mean the animals being culled and years of hard work gone. But we are lucky that we are in Norfolk and we are only testing every four years because there are so few cases of TB here."
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